Much like De La Soul’s colorful humor offered a contrast to the blustery bravado that otherwise dominated New York’s hip-hop scene in the late ’80s, the Pharcyde’s own style of class clown charm made for a clear alternative to the over-the-top mean-mugging of L.A.’s gangsta rappers of the early ’90s era. It’s telling, for example, that when so many other rappers were boasting of their harems of over-sexed lovers, the quartet’s enduring hit from Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde would be “Passin’ Me By,” a song in which all four MCs share their tales of being shot down by the objects of their affection. Not all of Bizarre Ride is so self-deprecating but the group’s quirk is one of its defining features, whether taking a more subtle set against the police on “Officer,” being lost in a haze of weed smoke on “Pack the Pipe” or trading the dozens on “Ya Mama.”

– Oliver Wang